U.S. officials are sounding the alarm about foreign adversaries’ use of artificial intelligence to manipulate Americans and say the new technologies have been used as accelerants.
China, Iran and Russia are all looking to leverage social media to dupe Americans ahead of the November elections, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“AI is a malign influence accelerant; it is being used to more quickly and convincingly tailor synthetic content, including audio and video,” a DNI official said. “In the run-up to November’s general election, we are monitoring foreign actors seeking to create deepfakes of politicians, flood the information space with false or misleading information to sow doubt about what is real, and to amplify narratives.”
The official told reporters on Tuesday that examples of AI threats were evident during recent election campaigns in Taiwan and India.
The U.S. intelligence community says China is likely responsible for dozens of online videos showing AI-generated newscasters reading sections of a book outlining purported scandals about Taiwan’s former president. U.S. officials said the book also may have been created by AI.
In India, millions of people clicked AI-generated ads depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other politicians talking about controversial issues.
To reach American voters, foreign adversaries are again turning to social media.
“Russian influence actors are planning to covertly use social media to amplify narratives, to sway U.S. public opinion in U.S. swing states, and diminish U.S. support for Ukraine,” a DNI official said. “We’ve also recently observed a Russian influence organization try to appeal to U.S. audiences through encrypted direct messaging channels.”
Although Russia is interested in the presidential contest, intelligence community analysts say China is not planning to influence the outcome because it sees little gain in choosing between the two major U.S. political parties.
“The [People’s Republic of China] is seeking to expand its ability to collect and monitor data on U.S. social media platforms, probably to better understand and eventually manipulate public opinion,” a DNI official said. “In addition, we are watching for whether China might seek to influence select down-ballot races as it did in the 2022 midterm elections.”
The intelligence community views Iran, in particular, as a “chaos agent” determined to undermine the American public’s confidence in elections. Iran has demonstrated a long-standing interest in exploiting U.S. political and social tension via social media and other means, DNI said.
Foreign adversaries are not the only ones looking to use AI-powered content to influence American voters’ decisions.
Democratic commentator Kaivan Shroff called for AI-enhanced depictions of President Biden to “clearly articulate his policies” amid mounting questions about the president’s cognitive capabilities after his disastrous June 27 debate with former President Donald Trump.
“These AI-enhanced videos could ensure that the public does not make decisions about the future of our democracy based on an inconveniently timed cough, stray stutter, or healthy but hobbled walk,” Mr. Shroff wrote in HuffPost.
Intelligence community officials said their focus is on foreign adversaries’ influence efforts, not domestic tricksters.
The officials said foreign election influence efforts intend to shape election outcomes or undermine democratic processes. Foreign election interference, meanwhile, involves adversaries working to degrade or disrupt the nation’s ability to stage an election, accurately record the votes and declare a winner.
“We have not observed any country plan or undertake efforts to degrade or disrupt the U.S.’s ability to hold an election,” a DNI official told reporters.
Sen. Mark R. Warner, Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has said he is withholding evidence of “quasi-allies” looking to meddle in the November elections but praised U.S. officials for briefing the press on foreign threats.
“Social media, in particular, continues to be a popular vector for foreign covert influence attempts, and our adversaries remain focused on stoking social, racial and political tensions among Americans,” Mr. Warner said in a statement. “The best thing Americans can do to help safeguard our election is avoid succumbing to nefarious foreign efforts to create division and sow chaos.”
Mr. Warner said he was committed to “working with the intelligence community to declassify more information and further increase transparency.”
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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